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Friday, May 31, 2013

Beth
Kendrick sweeps you off your feet with a captivating tale of how even the
best-laid plans can falter at the altar.

After enduring a chaotic childhood, Emily McKellips yearns for a drama-free
life, complete with a white picket fence. Her dreams are about to come true:
She has a stellar career, a gorgeous house, and a fiancé any woman would die
for. But as friends and family arrive in picturesque Valentine, Vermont, for
her wedding, an uninvited guest shows up.

Ryan is Emily’s first husband from a disastrous starter marriage. They wed on a
whim, only to discover that combustible chemistry couldn’t ensure a happily
ever after. But Ryan is no longer the headstrong boy she left behind. He’s now
a successful film producer who just happens to be scouting a resort in
Valentine with his adorable retriever in tow.

As the bridesmaids revolt and the mothers of the bride and groom do battle,
Emily is surprised to discover new sides of both her ex and her fiancé. She
thought she had life and love all figured out, but the next seven days might
change her mind—and her heart.

“Summer?
Where are you? Yes, I know the bridesmaids’ tea isn’t for four more hours, but I
need you right now…Screw the speed limit. And no bathroom breaks, either…I’ll
tell you what’s up. We’ve got a code-red, man-down, what’s-the-number-for-nine-one-one-ex-husband
emergency happening in Valentine, Vermont.”

“You’re
the one who always said fortune favors the bold.”

The
world’s most perfect man had one hand on the steering wheel and the other on
Emily’s thigh.

“I
like to know things no one else does.”

From
the perspective of someone who is getting married within the coming year, this
book was outrageously funny, sweet, and completely unputdownable! I have always
reading stories about weddings, and especially by authors who can write them so
well. Weddings are a beautiful time in a couple’s life and are nothing short of
chaotic, fast-paced, and very stressful. But when it is all said and done I
think every mostly every bride felt special and loved on her big day. Emily McKellips
is about to walk down the aisle for the second time, but this time she is older
and wiser. With only a week before the wedding she and her fiancé, Grant, head
up to Valentine, Vermont to prepare for the wedding when Emily runs into the
last person on Earth she wants to see in the days before her wedding…her
ex-husband!

The
relationship between Emily and her ex-husband, Ryan was something that I was
curious about from the very start. She had his name tattooed on her left ring
finger, and she would often have flashbacks from their time in college together.
I instantly liked Ryan even though he was snarky and very sarcastic. I knew
that Emily, deep down, still had feelings for him as well, and Kendrick does a
nice job of changing Emily’s character whenever she is around Ryan just enough
to let readers know just what Emily REALLY feels. They are two characters that you
might not necessarily pick to be together, but after you read about them you
will see what attracted them to one another in the first place.

The
whole idea of a wedding sends chills up my spine. My favorite movie as a little
girl was The Wedding Planner. I used
to dream of being a wedding planner myself, so you can imagine the nostalgia that
washed over me when I received this book. The wedding details are sweet and
charming and I loved the setting. Valentine, Vermont. Well I mean who wouldn’t want
to get married there? And of course with all weddings there comes a bit of
family feuding, and I loved when Emily’s mother, Georgia, and Grant’s mother, Bev,
were in the same room together arguing over wedding details. This book was
crazy, cute, and super easy to read! And guess what? You’re invited to the
wedding!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at NAL Trade in exchange
for my honest review***

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Gowan Stoughton of Craigievar, Duke of Kinross, values order and self-control
above all else. So when he meets a lady as serene as she is beautiful, he
promptly asks for her hand in marriage.

With a lady

Edie—whose passionate temperament is the opposite of serene—had such a high
fever at her own debut ball that she didn’t notice anyone, not even the
notoriously elusive Duke of Kinross. When her father accepts his offer… she
panics.

And when their marriage night isn’t all it could be, she pretends.

In a tower.

But Edie’s inability to hide her feelings makes pretending impossible, and when
their marriage implodes, she retreats to a tower—locking Gowan out.

Now Gowan faces his greatest challenge. Neither commands nor reason work with
his spirited young bride. How can he convince her to give him the keys to the
tower…

When she already has the keys to his heart?

Time
wasted itself, in his opinion. All too soon, and out of the blue, you toppled
over and died, and all of your moments were gone.

The
only problem was that the room was filled with English ladies, and he had
determined that it would be a bad idea to marry one of those.

Perhaps
Shakespeare was useful for something after all.

I,
like many others, am a huge fan of Eloisa James, and whenever she releases a
new book I am one of the first ones on the scene. She gives a new feeling to
romance and really knows how to bring a story to life. This is the fifth addition
to this series and although I wish it followed the fairy tale of Rapunzel a
little more precisely, I was still pleased with the story and the characters
involved. Gowan and Edith are quite possibly the best couple I have read and
followed this year. Eloisa once again does a fabulous job of painting a fairy tale
in the manner that it should be!

Gowan
was such a charmer! I knew that I was going to love him when I started reading
the letters between him and Edith. He had such a remarkable sense of humor that
you would never expect from someone so established and influential within
society. He was an amazing male character, and as you know they are usually not
my favorite. Gowan is such the perfect match for Edie, who is a little pushy at
times and quite the typical woman in my opinion.

Edith
was also a success in my book. I loved her drive and how determined she was. I
thought the fact that she was a brilliant magician was a small detail but
really played into her character quite nicely. I was able to see where all of
her quirky traits and small fetishes come from. I also liked the relationship
between Edie and her stepmother, Layla. It was nice to experience some of the
girl talk and the long conversations they endured about love and marriage.

If
you haven’t already, you should definitely give this series a try!!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Avon in exchange for
my honest review***

Memorial
Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to
the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another
placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that
sustained her after heartbreak.

That is, until Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview.

Nick and Budgie Greenwald are an unwelcome specter from Lily’s past: her former
best friend and her former fiancé, now recently married—an event that set off a
wildfire of gossip among the elite of Seaview, who have summered together for
generations. Budgie’s arrival to restore her family’s old house puts her once
more in the center of the community’s social scene, and she insinuates herself
back into Lily's friendship with an overpowering talent for seduction...and an
alluring acquaintance from their college days, Yankees pitcher Graham
Pendleton. But the ties that bind Lily to Nick are too strong and intricate to
ignore, and the two are drawn back into long-buried dreams, despite their
uneasy secrets and many emotional obligations.

Under the scorching summer sun, the unexpected truth of Budgie and Nick’s
marriage bubbles to the surface, and as a cataclysmic hurricane barrels unseen
up the Atlantic and into New England, Lily and Nick must confront an emotional
cyclone of their own, which will change their worlds forever.

“Just
give me sunshine and a sandy beach, and I’m happy as a clam.”

After
our meal, we’d pass through the rest of the veranda, greeting acquaintances,
and when we reached her table I’d be composed, settled into the routine of
shaking hands and expressing admiration for new hairstyles and new dresses, of
lamenting the loss of elderly members and during the past year, of celebrating the
arrival of new grandchildren: the same conversation, the same pattern, evening after
evening and summer after summer. I knew my lines by heart. A minute, perhaps two,
and we’d be gone.

But
for once, Budgie is wrong. In the morning, just before seven, I am awakened by
a determined knock at my door. Behind it, a groggy-faced fresher in a plaid
robe and round tortoiseshell eyeglasses tells me there’s a fellow on crutches
waiting downstairs for me, who wants his jacket back.

And
I wanted to be kissed again. I wanted to remember what it felt like when a man
held me in his arms, and lowered his head to mine, and told me what I meant to
him. I wanted to feel his warm hands and his warm lips on my skin. I wanted to
lie next to him, and listen to the sound of his breathing, and know he was
mine.

This
was the perfect summer read. Set along the beautiful coast line of Seaview,
Rhode Island, this book was full of secrets, parties, drama, and the beautiful
summer sun. The story focuses around the life of Lily Dane and parallels
between 1931 and 1938, and tells the story of her and her ex-best friend Budgie
Byrne, Nick Greenwald, and Graham Pendleton and the summer they all met and
where their lives took them afterwards. Nick and Graham were both football
stars, and Lily and Budgie were just two hopeless college girls that fell in
love too fast and too easy.

I
absolutely loved the fact that they story alternates between 1931 and 1938. I
want to say that this is Lily’s story, but that wouldn’t be totally fair
because it is partly the other’s story as well. They all share a part in it at
least. The story really picks up pace when you begin reading what is going on
in the present day for Lily, 1938, when Budgie comes back to Seaview married to
Lily’s ex, Nick Greenwald. Lily didn’t turn out how I expected she would. She was
single and practically raising her younger sister, Kiki. She seemed solemn and
lonely, but this changes once the secrets start to unleash. The best part of
this book is that while you, as the reader, are learning about Lily in the
present you also get to see how she and Nick first met and how their
relationship developed. It was sweet and endearing!

I
love how this story unfolded, and I love the fact that I was made to keep
guessing in the beginning. I knew things were going to get juicy, but I never
imagined just how juicy. This story is dramatic, sexy, and a little scandalous,
and I believe this is the perfect combination. My favorite character was Lily’s
little sister, Kiki, whom Lily was practically raising herself. Kiki was a
fun-loving child who really was more mature for her age. She usually broke the
ice in sticky situations. For example, after Lily sees Nick for the first time
in years, Lily jumps in with the cutest, sweetest remark that only a small
child could make. She is the perfect addition to this story!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Putnam Adult in
exchange for my honest review***

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

In
a novel based on true events, New York
Times bestselling author Sandra Dallas delivers the story of four
women---seeking the promise of salvation and prosperity in a new land---who
come together on a harrowing journey.

In 1856, Mormon converts, encouraged by Brigham Young himself, and outfitted
with two-wheeled handcarts, set out on foot from Iowa City to Salt Lake City,
the promised land. The Martin Handcart
Company, a zealous group of emigrants headed for Zion, is the last to leave on
this 1,300-mile journey. Earlier companies arrive successfully in Salt Lake
City, but for the Martin Company the trip proves disastrous. True Sisters tells the story of
four women whose lives will become inextricably linked as they endure unimaginable
hardships, each one testing the boundaries of her faith and learning the true
meaning of survival and friendship along the way: Nannie, who is traveling with
her sister and brother-in-law after being abandoned on her wedding day; Louisa,
who’s married to an overbearing church leader who she believes speaks for God;
Jessie, who’s traveling with her brothers, each one of them dreaming of the
farm they will have in Zion; and Anne, who hasn’t converted to Mormonism but
who has no choice but to follow her husband since he has sold everything to
make the trek to Utah.

Sandra Dallas has once again written a moving portrait of women surviving the
unimaginable through the ties of female friendship.

The
sisters pared down to their wardrobes, so that each had just three dresses, two
for the journey and the third to wear for the handcart entrance into Great Salt
Lake City, where they expected to be met by a brass band.

The
three of them knew about polygamy, had known about it before they agreed to go
to Utah Territory. In 1853, not long after they joined the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, they learned that Joseph Smith had revealed to his
people that the Lord had told Mormon men to take second and third wives.

“Is
it any more preposterous than God giving Moses stone tablets with the Ten
Commandments written on them?”

Later,
when John pressed her, as he had repeatedly since they boarded the ship, to
consider joining the church, Anne repeated the woman’s words: “If God wants me
to become a Mormon, He, not you, will tell me.”

This
story follows a group of Mormon converts coming to America, more directly to
Salt Lake City, from various places in Europe. This story is based on the true
events inspired by Brigham Young and the Promised Land that he foresaw for his
people. The Martin Handcart Company, which all four of our women belong to, is
the last to leave on this trek across the United States to Salt Lake City. This
story follows four women who are all walking the same trail to Salt Lake City,
but who all hold different desires, dreams, and family dynamics. We follow
Nannie, Anne, Louisa, and Jessie as they suffer through life’s disappointments
and learn what they each really stand for.

I
think this would and is a difficult topic to cover and write. Sandra Dallas, always
a favorite read for me, does an exquisite job writing about something that was
such a monumental event in the history of our nation. Many Latter Day Saints
crossed oceans and vast flat lands, hills, and mountains to reach the Promised
Land, and talking about religion in any type of writing can be a sticky
situation and especially an event as big as this one. I can honestly say that I
truly felt that she captured the struggles and the hardships that each of these
women and the people on this trail faced as they trekked West. I genuinely felt
compassion and sympathy for each young woman as she went through her own trials
and tribulations.

I
did have my favorite characters though and two women really stood out to me. I
admired the way they were written and the things they believed in. Firstly
there was Anne, whose husband is a firm believer and recent convert, but who
cannot accept that Anne has not accepted the faith yet. Anne is a confident
woman who stands firm in her beliefs even if her husband and everyone around
her does not approve. Even as she loses her eldest daughter and is pregnant
with another, she still stands firm in the fact that she is her own person and
only God will change her mind. And secondly there was Jessie who was traveling
out West with her two older brothers. Jessie is stubborn and is used to doing a
man’s work alongside her two brothers. She is not delicate like most women and
has no use for many of the men who try to boss around their wives and treat
them as less than equal. Both of these women were written as true inspirations!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at St. Martin’s Press in
exchange for my honest review***

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

It’s
August in Savannah, Georgia—hardly the season for a traditional Southern
wedding with hoopskirts and crinolines. One could die from the heat—or from a
cake knife in the back...

Reagan Summerside should be devoting all her energy to her consignment shop the
Prissy Fox. But when her dear friend Chantilly Parker is arrested for murder,
Reagan vows to clear her name. The victim is Simon Ambrose, who’s found lying
in his own wedding cake with a knife in his back.

Chantilly has motive (Simon broke her heart to marry wealthy Waynetta Waverly)
and opportunity (crashing the wedding in her UPS delivery truck). And she has
cake on her face, and the stolen bridesmaid dress the killer wore is in her
truck. But Chantilly would never wear crinoline to kill a man!

With the help of her flamboyant auntie, KiKi, and vexing but attractive
attorney Walker Boone, Reagan is determined to save her friend—before she’s
forced to turn in her brown uniform for an orange jumpsuit…

Doreen
pushed open the door to the room and flopped back on the bedspread
spread-eagle, staring at the ceiling. “The wedding’s off,” she said in a flat
voice. “I suppose you could say the groom got creamed. I should have been a
librarian like Mamma wanted.” Doreen closed her eyes, draped a black bow tie
across her forehead in defeat, and was instantly asleep.

“Reagan,
honey, I know where this is headed, and it’s good place to be going. You’re
working yourself up to getting involved with finding who did in Simon and not
listening to one blessed word I say. You haven’t touched your martini, meaning
you’re thinking and fretting, and that’s going to lead straight to trouble.”

“I
know for a fact that Doreen-the-wedding-planner considered murdering Simon a
time or two, she told me herself. She got all the blame when things didn’t go
right. The man was single-handedly ruining her reputation.”

“Oh
dear Lord!” I starting for Doreen but then stopped in my tracks because Simon
was there, too. He was face down in the five-tiered wedding cake with a silver
cake knife sticking out of his back.

Reagan
Summerside is still running her consignment shop, The Prissy Fox, and desperately
hopes to keep the store and her head above water. On a hot summer’s day in
August, Reagan is needed at a local wedding because the groom, Simon Ambrose,
has misplaced his bow tie and it’s almost time for his big show! When Reagan
arrives at the wedding she finds that her friend and Simon’s ex, Chantilly
Parker is at the wedding in her UPS truck and she is sneaking a piece of the
wedding cake. After running around with the wedding planner and trying to get
this wedding in order, Reagan finds Simon, but not necessarily in a probable
situation. Well…he’s lying in the wedding cake…with a knife in his back.

Duffy
Brown really knows how to capture the South and all her Southern traditions and
dialect has me feeling right at home. She paints a cast of completely hilarious
and sometimes unlikely characters. Reagan’s gang is sure to make anyone laugh
and you cannot get through one of Duffy’s books without bursting into laughter
at least one time. I get the small town feeling when I read one of Duffy’s
mysteries even though we are in Savannah. All the characters act like one big
family and I especially enjoyed Reagan’s relationship with Chantilly, her best
friend. I really enjoyed her character because right from the beginning I knew
that since Simon Ambrose had left Chantilly for a richer woman, she would be
the prime suspect. Chantilly is hysterical, dramatic, and emotional in her
current circumstance, but she is everything you would expect a best friend to
be!

This
is the second book in the series, and while I think it’s best to read the first
book in this series, I don’t think it is absolutely necessary. Duffy is a
talented writer and includes all the important details right from the start. If
you love Southern settings or a cast of crazy characters, then this will
definitely be a book/series for you to try! Get caught up in a mystery of
gigantic proportions!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Berkley in exchange
for my honest review***

Once
Upon a Prince, the first novel in the Royal Wedding series by bestselling
author Rachel Hauck, treats you to a modern-day fairy tale.

Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a
princess---just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn’t
going according to plan. When her high-school-sweetheart-turned-Marine-officer
breaks up instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life.

The last thing Prince Nathaniel expects to find on his American holiday to St.
Simon’s Island is the queen of his heart. A prince has duties, and his family’s
tense political situation has chosen his bride for him. When Prince Nathaniel
comes to Susanna’s aid under the fabled Lover’s Oak, he is blindsided by love.

Their lives are worlds apart. He’s a royal prince. She’s a ordinary girl. But
everything changes when Susanna receives an invitation to Nathaniel’s
coronation.

What
did he say? The storm gusts moving over the Atlantic must have garbled his words.
“I can’t marry you”?

She’d
never been into romance, fairy tales, knights in shining armor, or handsome
princes riding up to save the day. Just a happily ever after with her strong
hometown marine. Now what was the plan for the rest of her life?

Then
Susanna passed by or brushed against him and fired up his longings and dreams.

He
was starting to know how it felt to be in love, though he’d never felt quite
like this before. He’d experienced fluttering emotions, runaway thoughts, and
numbed ambitions for anyone or anything but the girl of his eye, but this sense
of peace and purpose, of clarity, of freedom to be himself, of selfless
devotion was new to him. And he loved it.

I
was instantly reminded of The Princess
Diaries when I started this book. I immediately fell in love with Susanna
and Nathaniel. Susanna Truitt has lived and loved her hometown of St. Simon’s
Island ever since she was a little girl. And for most of her life she has been
there waiting for her soldier, Adam, to come home and propose to her. When we
readers meet Susanna, Adams kindly tells her that he “found the right ring but
not the right girl.” Susanna, is of course devastated, and begins rethinking
some of her major life decisions. When Susanna has decided to give up on love altogether,
Nathaniel waltzes into her life and onto St. Simon’s Island. Susanna begins to,
unknowingly and unintentionally, develop feelings for him, so I am sure you can
only imagine her disbelief when she finds out he is a crown prince!

This
story was absolutely wonderful! I could read it over and over again. This story
has the makings that are as charming as The
Princess Diaries! I fell in love with the story and in love with Susanna
and Nathaniel most of all. I got to go along with Susanna as she embarked in a
real life fairy tale. Susanna was an amazing heroine and I enjoyed following
her around St. Simon’s Island. Susanna was the perfect character to become a
princess/queen. She was sweet, smart, and put the feelings of other before her
own. She handled one of the worst breakups known to man, really it was awful, with
more confidence than any woman I know!

Nathaniel
was the epitome of a perfect gentleman, and my favorite part of this book was
when Susanna gets to travel to the kingdom of Brighton to visit Nathaniel, his
palace, and his family. At first Susanna does not fit in well with the family
and I loved watching her adjust to Nathaniel’s sophisticated lifestyle amongst the
royals. I don’t want to give away too much when it comes to the second half of
the book, but this is the when all the magic happens! Susanna and Nathaniel
come to a few realizations, and by the time I hit the second half of the book I
flew through it even faster than the first half!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Zondervan in exchange
for my honest review***

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Nothing
is as it seems in this darkly romantic tale of infatuation and possession,
inspired by Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

Becca was the perfect girlfriend: smart, gorgeous, and loved by everyone at New
England’s premier boarding school, Thorn Abbey. But Becca’s dead. And her
boyfriend, Max, can’t get over his loss.

Then Tess transfers to Thorn Abbey. She’s shy, insecure, and
ordinary—everything that Becca wasn’t. And despite her roommate’s warnings, she
falls for brooding Max.

Now Max finally has a reason to move on. Except it won’t be easy. Because Becca
may be gone, but she’s not quite ready to let him go…

With all my love, Becca. Even her handwriting is
beautiful. And bold. The ink is a deep, velvety pink, the color of late-summer
roses. Trembling, I told the big, swirly B
of her name…and recoil, stifling a scream. The page is burning hot.

But
these woods, this path, and the beach beyond bear little resemblance to Cape
Cod. Everything about this place is cold and uninviting. Of course, it’s
probably the early hour of the day and my foul mood. Or the fact that a girl I didn’t
even know, a girl who’s been on my mind way too much since yesterday, drowned
in these waters.

Silence
or more silence. I can feel Devon’s gaze boring into me in the darkness. There’s
probably a simple explanation for all of this: She is talking in her sleep, or
drunk, or on drugs, or nuts. Or all of the above. Or maybe I’m having one of
those weird dreams that feel completely real. Whatever it is, I wish it would
stop.

Life
at Thorn Abbey is definitely more complicated than life at Avery Park High.

I
am reading a lot of negative reviews on this book, but I thought this book was
worth the four stars that it received from me. I must be honest in saying that
when I started reading this book I did not know it was a retelling of Daphne du
Maurier’s Rebecca, and further more I
have never read this book in the first place. I believe that may be why I enjoyed
the book because I had not other story to compare it to. I will admit that the
book started somewhat slow, but as soon as Tess gets to this boarding school
called Thorn Abbey, everything starts to pick up pace drastically! Tess
immediately finds friends and develops a crush on the school heartthrob, Max,
and quickly learns of his past and his girlfriend, Becca, who was recently
killed in a sailboat accident. Horrible events happen right? Tess sees no
reason why Max cannot get over Becca in order to give her a chance. Despite the
warning of her new friends and roommate, Devon, Tess continues to pursue Max
and learns a thing or two about this…Becca.

I
must admit that to me this book was creepy and had me on edge. I did not expect
for most of what happened in this book to happen. Again and please do keep in
mind, I have not read the classic Rebecca,
so I am not even sure what that book is even really about. This book was full
of action and crazy, spooky scenes. I imagined every scenario and person, or
should I say spirit, that Tess came in contact with. By the time the book was
over and the final scene had occurred I felt my blood go cold. I am not sure
about others but I find Ohlin to be a fantastic author, who can write passages that
slowly lead you into mind-blowing scenes.

I
really enjoy books that take place in affluent boarding schools. This book did
not disappoint in this category. I did not think that too much time was spent
on describing the setting, and in fact I would have liked to hear more about Thorn
Abbey. I especially loved the details about the owners of the school, and I enjoyed
the few scenes where Tess and Max visit their graves. There were several spooky
details and scenes that took place just like this one. A lot of those scenes
revolve around Devon, Tess’s roommate, whom I never really liked from the start
and by the time I reached the end of the novel I understood why. This is the
type of book that reveals secrets little by little, and if you are a fan of
this type of novel at all then I suggest you give this book a try!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Simon Pulse in
exchange for my honest review***

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Lucy’s
Chantress magic will make her the most powerful—and most hunted—girl in
England.

“Sing, and the darkness will find you.” This warning has haunted
fifteen-year-old Lucy ever since she was eight and shipwrecked on a lonely
island. Lucy’s guardian, Norrie, has lots of rules, but the most important is
that Lucy must never sing. Not ever. Now it is 1667, Lucy is fifteen, and on
All Hallows’ Eve, Lucy hears a tantalizing melody on the wind. She can’t help
but sing—and she is swept into darkness.

When she awakes in England, Lucy hears powerful men discussing
Chantresses—women who can sing magic into the world. They are hunting her, but
she escapes and finds sanctuary with the Invisible College, an organization
plotting to overthrow the nefarious Lord Protector. The only person powerful
enough to bring about his downfall is a Chantress. And Lucy is the last one in
England.

Lucy struggles to master the song-spells and harness her power, but the Lord
Protector is moving quickly. And her feelings for Nat, an Invisible College
apprentice and scientist who deeply distrusts her magic, only add to her
confusion...

Time is running out, and the fate of England hangs in the balance in this
entrancing novel that is atmospheric and lyrical, dangerous and romantic.

Sing and the darkness
will find you.

“It
wasn’t me you heard,” I said. “It’s something else. A sort of singing sound in
the wind. I don’t know what it is.”

But
already the wind was rising. It swirled through the room, midnight black, and
caught us both in its grasp. As the candle went out, the song rose to a shriek,
and everything around us vanished.

The
thief…where was he? In this blackness he could be standing five feet away, and I
would not know it.

I
expected to really love this book and while I didn’t hate it, it wasn’t one of
my favorites either. Chantress just
took so long to actually get to the “good stuff.” Some pages could have been
cut off for sure, and while I enjoyed the world building and the added
information about Chantress magic it could have been cut way down. Lucy is our
main character and the story focuses, not primarily but mostly, on her magical abilities.
I was very intrigued in the opening pages, and I even felt an eerie chill go up
my spine when Greenfield described how Lucy was stranded and the idea that
singing would call some type of dark magic upon them. I liked Lucy’s voice and her
magical abilities were amazing and completely different from anything I have
ever read before.

As
I have already mentioned, the world building was phenomenal and the attention
to detail was exquisite. I felt like the story had so many layers and I was
impressed by this. I once had an English teacher to tell me that any good story
should resemble an onion; peeling more and more away layer by layer. I can
definitely say that Chantress is an
onion; there is so much to unfold unfortunately it wasn’t all action-packed and
fast-paced. Most of the book deals with Lucy’s training and while I understand that
this is necessary for the upcoming books in the series, it got old and got old
fast.

The
fact that I am obsessed with any magical themed books won out with me here.
Even though I hated the slow pace, I absolutely adored the premise behind Lucy’s
story. Greenfield does have quite the imagination. Lucy was my favorite
character, and really none of the rest of them stood out to me too much. Lucy
was written so that she could grow as her training and knowledge of the magical
world surrounding her progressed, and this was what kept me hooked the most!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Margaret K. McElderry
Books in exchange for my honest review***

Professor
Olive Twist has come to Zinnia, Mississippi to study a mysterious
grave wherein lies the Lady in Red, a perfectly preserved and stunningly
beautiful but unnamed and unclaimed body. Olive claims she can not only
identify the corpse, she can also prove the woman’s scandalous role in the
nation’s history. Olive takes it a step too far, though, when she
starts connecting elite Zinnia families with the same scandal.

Dander up, Zinnia’s society ladies know only one way to handle Olive: they call
on the private investigative services of Sarah Booth Delaney. But Olive’s real
agenda is clear as Mississippi mud, and when Sarah Booth discovers a
present-day dead body, she knows there’s more than just family pride and
Southern heritage at stake. If she can’t find the murderer and
fast, it might just be Sarah Booth's life on the line next.

Carolyn Haines pulls out all the stops in Smarty
Bones, the next charming, sassy, Southern-fried Sarah Booth Delaney
mystery.

One
of the worst – and the best – things about Southerners is their total devotion
to the reverence of the past.

Color
me flabbergasted. I opened and closed my mouth like a guppy, unable to form
words. Her accusations and leaps of logic were so astounding, no sane person
would give them credence. She’d take a local mystery and embroidered it into a
tablecloth for a banquet of crazy lies.

“Olive
Twist. Like the Dickens character, only female.” She caught on fast.

“Really
skinny. Like a number two pencil. And glamorous with a peculiar sense of
fashion. And mean as a pit viper. She enjoys upsetting people. She disrupted
the meeting of the Daughters of the Supreme Confederacy. That’s how I got on to
her. France Malone came by Dahlia House and asked me to speak to her, for all
the good it did.”

Sarah
Booth Delaney is at it again! There is another mystery to solve and this
southern gal is already on the case. A Professor Olive Twist has come to
Zinnia, Mississippi and plans to stir up trouble for the locals. Sarah Booth
and her close friends will have none of it, however, and they immediately
become suspicious of this long-legged, big-footed know-it-all! Then when her
personal assistant whom she bosses around like an orphan child turns up dead,
Olive Twist becomes the prime suspect. However, swearing that she is innocent,
Professor Twist hires Sarah to prove just that. With a mixture of other crazy
happenings in Zinnia, Mississippi, Sarah Booth has a hard time only focusing on
her case, but as well she gets the job done and gets her man…or woman!

I
am absolutely in love with the Sarah Booth Delaney mysteries for many, many
reasons. Firstly, I love the culture and the background that Haines gives Sarah
Booth and her small town friends. The Southern dialect and traditions often
come through in Haines’ writing. She uses some of the most catchy phrases and
expressions, and they are often uttered by our favorite heroine. She has quite
the catchy tongue, and I found myself laughing at her more times than not. I
can almost hear her Southern twang pouring out over the pages, and a lot of
what she says I have often heard by many Southerners around me.

I
was very intrigued by the storyline within this mystery, and Haines explains in
the historical note that some of this mystery is based on actual fact. The mystery
revolves around the unearthing of a completely intact woman in a coffin called “The
Lady in Red.” The woman that was accidentally dug up while a new site was being
excavated was submerged in a beautiful air tight coffin full of alcohol. Some of
these events were based on fact and actually did happen. I loved how Professor
Olive Twist fit into this story and her character, while being rather rude and
obnoxious, fit in perfectly with this mystery. She plans to prove that “The
Lady in Red” is related to two of the most influential families in Zinnia and
that she was guilty in planning to assassinate Lincoln, as in Abraham! Not of
the facts in this story actually happened, but Haines explains all that before
you begin reading.

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Minotaur Books in
exchange for my honest review***

Friday, May 24, 2013

At
first, I merely saw his face, his hands on the window ledge. Then, his whole
body as he swung himself through the window. Only I could not see what he swung
on.Until, one day, I told my dream self to look
down. And it was then that I saw. He had climbed on a rope. I knew without
asking that the rope had been one of my own tying.

Rachel is trapped in a tower, held hostage by a woman she’s always called Mama.
Her golden hair is growing rapidly, and to pass the time, she watches the snow
fall and sings songs from her childhood, hoping someone, anyone, will hear her.

Wyatt needs time to reflect or, better yet, forget about what happened to his
best friend, Tyler. That’s why he’s been shipped off to the Adirondacks in the
dead of winter to live with the oldest lady in town. Either that, or no one he
knows ever wants to see him again.

Dani disappeared seventeen years ago without a trace, but she left behind a
journal that’s never been read, not even by her overbearing mother…until now.

A #1 New York Times bestselling author,
Alex Flinn knows her fairy tales, and Towering
is her most mind-bending interpretation yet. Dark and mysterious, this
reimagining of Rapunzel will have readers on the edge of their seats wondering
where Alex will take them next!

“The
trees did a skeleton dance in the December wind.”

“I
laughed, but I liked the idea of it, that I might be special somehow and just
not realize it, that the best part of my life wasn’t already over.”

“Some
people were big on them, but I knew that secrets could kill like handguns and
knives.”

A
modern fairytale retelling based on the classic tale of Rapunzel, only with
twisted and modern flair, and I read it all in one sitting! This story put a
dark twist on the fairytale that many people know and love. I have never read a
fairytale retelling that I didn’t like and this one will sit forever at the top
of my favorites list. There is an amazing mystery behind this retelling and we
are introduced to the girl who lives in the tower by a boy named Wyatt. Wyatt
has just lost his best friend and the girl he has secretly harbored feelings for
for quite some time, and his mother has sent him off on a sort of healing holiday
to stay with the mother of her childhood best friend. Once Wyatt arrives in tremendously
cold and terrifying mountains, he learns of strange disappearances that have occurred
over the vast and chilly mountains for years and years. He quickly learns that one
of those disappearances was his mother’s best friend, Danielle, when she was
only a teenager. Wyatt goes on a quest to discover what really happened to
Dani, and instead he finds a beautiful girl in an old abandoned tower!

The
mystery of Dani’s disappearance kept me reading this book until I finished it.
I just could not put the book down until I learned what happened to Dani all
those years ago. I usually don’t care for male perspectives, but Wyatt was an
amazing guide! I loved his voice and the way he slowly began to open up to
readers and let them in on his haunting past. Wyatt was a truly interesting
character and his story blew my mind away. He really introduces readers to the
scenery that surrounds him and the way he realizes and perceives things around
him sent chills up my spine. He was so involved in Dani’s life and he is the
voice that causes readers to become so caught up in this rollercoaster ride of
a story.

The
girl in the tower. The topic that everyone wants to hear about I know, but
unfortunately this is not something that I can talk about without including too
many spoilers. It is best to find the girl just like Wyatt does, unexpected and
bewildered. She is beautiful and her story is just like Dani’s, it grabs you by
the hand and won’t let you stop reading until you have all the answers. I feel
completely confident in giving this story five cupcakes! This is a story that
many readers will find irresistible to put down.

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Harper Teen in
exchange for my honest review***

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Vacation,
all I ever wanted! Vacation, have to get away! Vacation, wish it would never
end :) Bloggers, avid readers, publishers, and authors this post is just to let
you all know that for the next week or so I will be gone on vacation! I will be
in the Grand Cayman Islands and Cozumel, Mexico so my blog will be out of
commission until I return after Memorial Day! Thank you all for your support
over the past year, and do not fret I return in one short week and a few days!

Fifteen-year-old
Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has
hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s older sister vanishes without a trace
while on a job, Izzy's mom decides they need to take a break.

Izzy and her mom move to a new town, but they soon discover it’s not as normal
as it appears. A series of hauntings has been plaguing the local high school,
and Izzy is determined to prove her worth and investigate. But assuming the
guise of an average teenager is easier said than done. For a tough girl who's
always been on her own, it’s strange to suddenly make friends and maybe even
have a crush.

Can Izzy trust her new friends to help find the secret behind the hauntings
before more people get hurt?

Rachel Hawkins' delightful spin-off brings the same wit and charm as the New York Times best-selling Hex
Hall series. Get ready for more magic, mystery and romance!

Killing
vampires is actually a lot easier that you’d think.

A
shiver went through, and I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with any ghost.

She
sounded so excited, and it was all I could do not to wince. Humans getting
involved with all the supernatural was bad enough, but exorcisms were way more
than a bunch of teenagers could handle.

“Forever
condemned to high school,” Dex said with a little shudder. “That would make me
homicidal, too.”

I
must admit before going on with this review that I have not read the Hex Hall
series by Rachel Hawkins. However, the first book in this new series, School
Spirits, makes me want to go back and read the first series from which this
book is a spin off. Rachel weaves a very supernatural world in this book
bringing in the cousin of heroine, Sophie, from the Hex Hall series. The
heroine in this new series is introduced as Isolde “Izzy” Brannick and her back
story follows her introduction. She and her mother are the last two Brannick
women, and they are very powerful when it comes to destroying Prodigium, supernatural
beings that get out of control. Learning to conquer small missions on her own
is Izzy’s latest task and her mother and she are whisked off to a small town
called Ideal, pun intended. Here Izzy is given the task of getting rid of the
local ghost, but finds that this might not be the only problem as far as the
town hauntings are concerned.

Rachel
Hawkins writes in a very easy, carefree manner. It is almost like the
descriptions and the supernatural happenings just come easy to her. Her writing
style is easy to follow and I was finished with this book before I knew it. The
chapters were relatively short and most all of them left off with a minuscule cliffhanger.
There were so many instance of humor embedded within the pages. I especially
loved Izzy’s friend Dex who often had something clever and witty to say. Izzy
makes some remarkable friends whilst she is attending Mary Evans High School, and
I happy to say that I loved every one of them! They are all colorful and
somewhat odd even, but that is what makes them spectacular.

Lastly,
I loved the supernatural element in this book! I loved that we were dealing
with about three mysteries at one time: Izzy’s missing sister, Finley, whether
or not Dex was really Prodigium, and the ghost of Mary Evans who was trying to
kill off members of the high school one by one. The story was fast-paced and
drew readers straight to the point. I am looking forward to the next book in
this series, and it was no surprise that I was left with questions concerning
the characters and what will happen next. My biggest concern is with Torin, the
man in the mirror, I think something is up with his character and I am dying to
know what!

***A
copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Disney-Hyperion in
exchange for my honest review***

About Me

My name is Chelsey and I am the creator of Charming Chelsey's! I read and review anything and everything that I find to be "charming."
I accept ARCs or already released books for review, and I'm also available to participate in any blog tours or book reveals too. If anything, please don't hesitate to email me any time for any reason at: charmingchelseys(at)gmail(dot)com